August 4, 2011 6:35 pm

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Tarvaris Jackson’s first practice with his new team went about how you would expect from a player sitting on the sidelines for the first week of practice, only to jump into the fray during a padded practice.

Jackson dazzled fans on hand with a couple athletic throws not seen around these parts since Seneca Wallace roamed the VMAC two years ago.

But don’t take my word for it.

“I was really impressed,” said new Seattle tight end Zach Miller said. “Obviously just seeing him play on film, and on TV is a lot different than playing with a guy. So getting a chance to get out here with him, I was really impressed. He has a ton of zip on the ball. He was hitting receivers out here, hitting the tight ends. And I was really impressed with how accurate he was.”

However, Jackson also struggled with getting his timing down and the snap from under center consistently. And he threw wild a couple times. But all in all, Jackson made it through the 2 ½ practice healthy and with ample room for improvement, as he will find out during film evaluation this evening.

“It felt good just to get a chance to get out there and practice with the guys,” Jackson said. “I’ve been here for about a week now. And it’s just been kind of frustrating to be on the sidelines watching. I was just anxious to get out there. And now we got a chance to get out there and get familiar with each other.”

The players arrived on the field at 1:30 p.m., but had to wait about 40 minutes on final approval that the new CBA had been ratified from the NFLPA and the league, getting final the final OK about 10 minutes past 2 p.m.

Along with Jackson, we got our first look at free agents offensive guard Robert Gallery, tight end Zach Miller and receiver Sidney Rice on offense.

Rice made the most noticeable impact, making a highlight reel catch by stretching and coming down with a high ball over the middle of the defense.

Jackson and Rice also connected on several sideline routes, and as expected, appeared to have a good rapport already developed.

Miller also as good as advertised, showing reliable hands and making several catches down the seam of the defense. The Seahawks used two tight-end sets a bunch today, so we got an opportunity to see Miller and John Carlson together on the field. As Pete Carroll and Tom Cable mentioned on Tuesday, Miller expects the two to work well together.

“We’re similar, but we’re different too,” Miller said. “We can play off each other. Any time you can put pressure on a defense with two tight ends sets, you’re going to give them headaches. We’re going to do a lot of that, and it’s going to be really good for our offense.”

Offensive guard Robert Gallery jumped right in and worked with the starting unit at left guard, and made an impact both in the run game and pass protection.

Some tidbits

* As expected, Jackson really played well when moving outside the pocket, including 25-yard strike to Carlson on a sideline route, and a pump fake that got Kentwan Balmer up in the air, completing a pass over the middle to Kris Durham.

But he also showed patience in dealing with the blitz, making a nice flick throw under pressure to Marshawn Lynch out in the flat, who bowled ahead for another 10 yards.

Jackson also appeared to carry himself with the athletic arrogance or swagger you come to expect from a starting quarterback in the NFL.

* Jackson said center Max Unger and receiver Doug Baldwin are two players that have stood out to him as he watched practice over the past week.

* Safety Kam Chancellor continues to shine, as he battles for the starting safety job next to Earl Thomas. Chancellor had his second interception in two days off a tipped ball by Aaron Curry intended to Carlson, Jackson’s only interception of the day.

* Practice overall was pretty ragged today, with several false starts, fumbled snap exchanges and dropped passes. It’s something that you expect to see about this time in camp, with guys who have been practicing getting a little tired, and the free agents who have not practiced looking more than a little bit rusty.

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

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Thanks Mr. Williams, I’ve been waiting all day to learn how this practice went.

That’s great news about T. Jack. I know it’s only one practice but hopefully our fears about the QB are irrational and we really do have a franchise QB in him. After all, considering the big targets he has it seems it would be harder for him to fail than to succeed.

What I really want to know is how the CB position is looking. Does it look like Trufant and Thurmand are going to be our starting corners? Has Jennings improved any? Or, is there someone new at the corner back position that has really impressed and is likely to steal a starting job?

I’ve been waiting for this, and I really think a lot of folks are trippin’ about TJax coming to the team. His track record was based on being a young QB driving the equivalent of a Ferrari with a questionable head crew chief (Childress). I think his track record proves he did relatively well handling that expectation as a young QB out of Alabama State. He didn’t play in the SEC folks. There’s a reason Bevell wanted the kid. His reputation for his first year rides on it.

“Beast Mode” behind an improved o line will be worth the price of admission.

The caliber of talent lining up on the offensive side of the ball in such a short time is.. Mind boggling to say the least. With TR it was always one step forward, three back. BMW, Rice, Lynch, Gallery, Okung, Carpenter were all first round. TE’s Carlson and Miller each taken 38 along with center Unger in the second, toss in WR Tate.

I got a chance to watch the entire practice and came away with a slightly different POV. Jackson did shine at times but had A LOT of rust to shake off if he is going to be our number 1. In comparison to TJack still getting acclimated Charlie looked impressive when in the pocket and reading coverage. Surprisingly poised and accurate (for Charlie). He had handful of balls that sailed however and he seemed surprisingly sloppy with his footwork when rushed and also when rolling out(which I thought was a strength). Maybe that was due to comparing to TJack who looked very fluid and natural when rolling out and on the move. He almost looked much more comfortable on the move. His play style looked eerily similar to Locker. Too rushed but looks good on the move. He had excellent arm strength and surprisingly Charlie seemed to match velocity also.

One of the most telling moments in practice is
when both Charlie and TJack were throwing at the same time. I look to one side and Jackson dumbed 2 snaps in a row. Shook my head and watched Charlie sail two passes in a row…

Charlie looked much better this practice but then again when was the last time TJack got some meaningful reps…. Regardless it’s early and the season is coming too quickly.

Eric, if the team keeps 9 OL, who do think would be the odd man out? At this point I think it would come down to Mquistan or Fanaika. Or do you see them only keeping 8 or perhaps 10? Either way I feel pretty good about those 10 guys.

I’m not going to buy into the anti-hype yet, far too soon. But this – “…dazzled fans on hand with a couple athletic throws not seen around these parts since Seneca Wallace roamed the VMAC…” does not instill me with confidence. lol

Zack Miller? The guy spent his career having Jamarcus Russell (try) to throw to him. Of course he’s going to think even a bum like Jackson (when is he going to learn to be “great” throwing from the pocket?) is going to look great to him. George Blanda would look great compared to Russell and the guy’s been dead for 10 months. Jackson sucks so much he’s spent his entire career having other quarterbacks brought in to replace him.

Eric, maybe you could ask Carroll why he traded a 3rd round pick and moved down 20 spots in the 2nd round in 2010 for a QB that he had no intention of every giving a fair shot to, and now brings in a bum like Jackson, and annoints him starter. Dude, I’ve heard of delegating, but Carroll has turned free agency over to his staff. His o-line coach is responsible for signing a guarnd who’s missed nearly half of the last two seasons and signing a TE we didn’t need (I think Miller is excellent but tight end is not a position of need on this team, QB, cornerback, DE and o-line depth are) and the OC stuck us with a quarterback who’s shown jack didley squat his whole career yet gets annointed starter (wonder who’s decision that really was?) and a very pricey receiver who’s coming off microfracturre surgery on his hip (and we’ve had such great success with players coming off microfracture surgery). I cringed when I read “laid out” and “landed”.

Whoever asked me to keep an eye on carlson.. I didnt need to. He was all over the field catching everything coming his way. They were definitely working 2 TE sets consistanty and Carlson was working a lot of pre snap movement. Carlson looks to be a big part of the the offense (at least this year).

Sidney Rice and Mike Williams look damn near identical in size with Big getting the slight push for girth. Sidney Rice looks every part of a number one reciever showing some surprising explosiveness and showcasing a highpoint between trufant and ET in the middle of the field.

The reciever that kept catching my eye was #15 – Baldwin (whos that?) he was flashing all over the place an attacking the ball in the air. I actually thought it was golden tate to start. They also look identical in size and also speed to boot. 15 had some crisp cuts and also battled his way to jump balls.

lockette didnt seem to impress me much. Everytime i was watching him he seemed to be stoning passes right off his hands……

wow, still amazes me how many people think they know better than the people paid millions to make these decisions. this guy has had 1 practice and you think he is a failure. i seem to remember people doing the same with Hass, give the guy a chance see what he has to offer this team. he wouldnt be the first QB to suck one place and do great somewhere else.

You know what else is music to my (eyes) to read how great our offense is doing? The fact that we now have a powerhouse offense to challenge our defense in practice. If they have to deal with Rice, BMW, Miller, Carlson, Beast Mode, and others during the week, you’d think they’ll be up to the task of dealing with those of other teams in the league–and especially in NFCW.

Eric, I’m wondering the exact same about our corner position right now as DisplacedSeahawkFan. Does Browner look like he may push for that? I’ve been dying to see how his size and CFL (All Star) experience plays out.

Coming into this off-season, the Minnesota Vikings had one of the worst QB situations in the NFL. Favre was done (at least in MN… lol) and there wasn’t anything else (unless you’re a Joe Webb believer, which their front office can’t be after severely reaching for Christian Ponder early in the 1st round of the draft [at least a major reach according to the "experts"]). They obviously weren’t believers in Jackson or they would have kept him around. They saw him in practice every day for years and they wanted no part of him moving forward (that’s one of many red flags, to me). How many teams simply let a talented, young QB walk away without any compensation if they think he’s worth a darn (or allow him to hit free agency without franchising him), unless there is an extreme case of that player being a major character risk (like calling the cops about Vince Young being on suicide alert or Mike Vick spending time in prison for killing dogs)?

For the record, I’d like nothing more for Jackson to magically turn the corner and kick ass. I’d love to be wrong about him. I want nothing more than to eat crow about him. I want him to lead us to a Super Bowl win! But if the team he’s been with all this time doesn’t believe in him one bit, I’m definitely going to be skeptical (along with all of my observations, which are plenty)?

nighthawk – after Rice had that hip surgery, he came back last year and had some great catches. There was one game last year where Troy Aikman wouldn’t shut up about some of the catches Rice was making (in the process, he definitely was throwing Jackson under the bus for not making better throws). IMO Rice is our best player and the least of our worries moving forward. He’s our own Larry Fitzgerald. Yes. I love him almost that much!

One practice seems hardly worth commenting on…but all the same, can’t wait to see the first pre-season game…to see if anything seems outright-better really than just a bunch of unknown, new faces…and a hint of the same mostly mediocre up-and-mostly-down offense that we’ve gotten too used around here…since 2005.

RGBuckle – your question about browner helped me recall the second name I didn’t know that was catching my eye out there.’i’m pretty sure it was browner definitely #37..

#37 was involved in quite a number of break ups. When a receiver was batting it out in the air #37 seemed to always be there. Many of times breaking up BMW and even a few on rice. I have no idea what his size is. I was looking for him after a break up on BMW and was surprised to see his big body lining up at CB instead of safety. He is definitely a big boy and would like to see what he can do with press coverage. The only time I saw him get burned was by a nifty move that carlson put on him to catch a TD by TJack laser. If browner is the big bodied #37, he’s got some game.

My god if Jon Ryan didn’t win ugliest NFL player last year, he sure is a front runner with his grown out red/blonde frazzle fro he’s got rocking.

Tom Cable ….. This guy looks to have complete control of his unit. His coaching style is more hands on and in your face than ken nortan jr. (which I didn’t think was possible). He has assistants but they are useless because if Tom is teaching something he is either doing it himself or sitting in your hip pocket till you get it right. Last year where Gibbs sauntered around expecting respect(which it was given). Tom cable thunders around commanding respect(which it is also given)……

First off the line was extremely hard to observe from my angle and the resting player blocking my view however…

Everytime I tried to spy on gallery I found myself drawn to Okung. He has this smooth power about him that is hard to describe. Two plays in a row: Okung drives kentwan ballmer on his heels into gallery to finish and slides off to leaf Hawthorne off to the side as whitehurst completes a pass to Carlson up the middle. Immediately after pancakes Jameson Konz (who for god knows why is playing Leo). There was also an excellent play on a designed cutback where gallery and Okung completely turned the left side like a sweeping stone door and opened up the entire side of the line for lynch to run up.

For whoever was asking, forsett looks shifty as ever but seems to be losing some reps to Washington. Both look great. Washington may have the speed but forsett has that power that will sneak up on you. Our trio of running backs is very diverse. As much as i would love forsett to be the man I think the biggest changeup comes from the difference of lynch and Washington.

I feel bad for TJ, no matter what the man does, people dis him before he really gets going. As far as his time in Minn. goes, there are also reports that the head coach was less than supportive. Give the man a chance to prove himself before making assumptions about the past. Especially if he shows flashes of skills, don’t just focus on his mistakes, look for the good stuff, too.

Nobody was more supportive of Jackson than his head coach, Brad Childress. Jackson was his hand picked franchise QB (whom they traded up to get in the 2nd round in Childress’ first year). He was the guy Childress was going to stake his career to. After some years had passed, then, yeah, the coaches were less than supportive because they knew what they had (which wasn’t a franchise QB). There’s no way the coaches were anything other than 100% supportive of Jackson for those early years. He got the benefit of the doubt early on because he was the “chosen one,” so I’m not buying the “head coach was less than supportive” argument. IMO, the head coach could not have been more supportive before they had an opportunity to get Favre.

If you had a neighbor moving into your neighborhood who just got out of jail (history of whatever crimes), would you be skeptical? Yes. But would you root for him to have turned his life around? Yes. I’m skeptical of Jackson magically turning his career around, although I’m rooting for it to happen.

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